New­comer Leonard scores 24 as Rap­tors beat Cava­liers 116-104

Leonard had 24 points and 12 re­bounds in his Toronto de­but, Kyle Lowry scored 27 points and the Rap­tors beat the Cleve­land Cava­liers 116-104 on Wed­nes­day night, ex­tend­ing their streak of open­ing-night vic­to­ries to six.

“I felt good,” Leonard said. “I’m happy we came out and got a win. I came out of the game healthy, so it’s a win-win for me.”

Ac­quired from the Spurs in a July block­buster that sent four-time All-star Demar Derozan to San An­to­nio, Leonard was in­tro­duced to a thun­der­ous ova­tion, the fi­nal Rap­tors starter to have his name an­nounced to the ca­pac­ity crowd of 19,915.

“It was great,” Leonard said. “They gave me some more en­ergy.”

Leonard played 37 min­utes in his first com­pet­i­tive game since Jan­uary with the Spurs. The two-time NBA De­fen­sive Player of the Year was lim­ited to nine games last sea­son be­cause of a quadri­ceps in­jury.

“It’s fun to watch, it’s fun to play with,” said guard Danny Green, who was traded to Toronto along with Leonard. “I’m happy for him, that he’s play­ing again.”